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Ecclesiastes 1:18
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16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained amore wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has1 understood great wisdom and knowledge.”  
17 aAnd I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. 
18 For ain much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. 
Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
<< Ecclesiastes 1:17   Ecclesiastes 2:1 >>


Ecclesiastes 1:18

For in much wisdom is much grief - The more we know of ourselves the less satisfied shall we be with our own hearts; and the more we know of mankind the less willing shall we be to trust them, and the less shall we admire them.

Be that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow - And why so? Because, independently of God, the principal objects of knowledge are natural and moral evils.

The Targum gives a curious paraphrase here: "The man who multiplies wisdom, when he sins and is not converted to repentance, multiplies the indignation of God against himself; and the man who adds science, and yet dies in his childhood, adds grief of heart to his relatives." A man in science; a foolish child in conduct. How pained must they be who had the expense of his education! But there are many men-children of this sort in every age and country.




Other Adam Clarke entries containing Ecclesiastes 1:18:

Isaiah 14:19

 

<< Ecclesiastes 1:17   Ecclesiastes 2:1 >>

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